Kirby's Dream Land
Kirby's Dream Land (known in Japan as 星のカービィ, transliterating to Hoshi no Kābī, translating to "Kirby of the Stars"), is the very first game in the ''Kirby'' series. The game was for the Game Boy and was followed by two similarly named games, Kirby's Dream Land 2 and Kirby's Dream Land 3. Story King Dedede and his followers have stolen Dream Land's food as well as the Sparkling Stars used to harvest them. Kirby sets off to reclaim the Sparkling Stars and teach the king a lesson. Gameplay Kirby's Dream Land operates similarly to other platformers during the 8-bit and 16-bit era of video games: Kirby must head right toward the goal at the end of each level while jumping over obstacles and defeating enemies. Kirby can also fly but cannot leave the screen through doing so. Like most games in the 80's and early 90's the player can accumulate points as they defeat enemies, and collect items and an extra life is granted once the player has enough points. However, the game lacks a save function so scores are not recorded. All levels are played on a two dimensional plane, allowing the player to move only left, right, up, and down. Kirby's main offensive technique is his ability to inhale enemies, objects, or food. Kirby can indefinitely inhale, and if an enemy, object, or food is in range, Kirby will eat it. When food is inhaled, it is automatically swallowed and will heal Kirby if he has any damage. When Kirby inhales an enemy or object, it remains in his mouth. At this point, Kirby can either shoot it out as a star that causes damage to anything in its path, or simply swallow it and destroy it altogether. Unlike in future games, Kirby does not gain new powers upon swallowing enemies. Mint Leaves are also present in several locations in the game, such as right before the fight with Kaboola. This allows Kirby to fire air puffs repeatedly without inhaling. Spicy Curry also appears in certain levels in the game, giving Kirby the ability to spit fireballs and causing him to move his feet faster than normal.In its remake, The copy abilites are added. The Bomb and Mike power-up items later evolved into Copy abilities in Kirby's Adventure. Levels Green Greens The first level in the game, Green Greens is a land with big grasslands and forests. *Mini-boss: Poppy Bros. Sr. *Boss: Whispy Woods Castle Lololo A haunted castle owned by Lololo, who is based off the main character in the Adventures of Lolo series, which HAL Laboratory has also worked on.Phan Phan was replaced by Lololo as a Mini-boss in it's remake * Mini-boss: Lololo * Boss: Lololo and Lalala Float Islands A chain of small tropical islands, with a cavern system and a ship. * Mini-boss: None * Boss: Kaboola Bubbly Clouds A level taking place up in the clouds. * Mini-boss: Kracko Jr. * Boss: Kracko Mt. Dedede This is the final level. King Dedede's castle on the top of a mountain. Kirby has to fight all of the game's previous bosses again, each time going through rooms based on the stage the boss first appeared in before he can fight King Dedede. *Mini-bosses: All the previous stage bosses (mini-bosses are excluded.) *Boss: King Dedede Modes When the player presses up, A, and select buttons in the same time (s)he'll get the extra mode. Also, when the player presses down, B, and select buttons in the same time (s)he'll get the configuration mode which means the player can pick the amount of lives and health to play and also hear the sound test. Legacy Kirby's Dream Land started the entire Kirby franchise, introducing characters and ideas that would appear in future installments. Sequels to Kirby's Dream Land have appeared on more than a half-dozen video game consoles, the first of which was Kirby's Adventure for the Nintendo Entertainment System. In addition to being the first game, there are strong references to it in its sequels. In Stage 7-6 of Kirby's Adventure (and its remake), the various rooms of the stage are modeled off of various places in Kirby's Dream Land; the stage has Green Greens music, and is even in black-and-white (except for Kirby, and also, in Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land, only the background is black-and-white). In Kirby Super Star (and its remake), one sub-game is based on Kirby's Dream Land, called Spring Breeze. It retains the same plot, but is now much shorter, removes many of the original enemies, and also has some considerable changes in level design. The main two changes are: * Castle Lololo is removed, and parts of it are merged with Float Islands. Lololo & Lalala are now the bosses of Float Islands, while Kaboola is removed altogether. * On Mount Dedede, there are only two rooms, one of which Kirby fights Dedede in a modernized fighting ring, and the other links directly to the same ring. Kirby no longer has to fight the previous stage bosses, likely in favor of Kirby Super Star's boss endurance, known as The Arena. In Kirby Super Star Ultra, there is also a harder version of Spring Breeze called Revenge of the King, which acts quite like the extra game, with some of the original level design put back in (with graphics updated to suit the capabilities of the Nintendo DS.) Characters Bosses | }} Mid-Bosses | }} On Mt. Dedede, all bosses are fought again as minibosses before facing King Dedede. Enemies | }} Music Reception Kirby's Dream Land has an average of 63.8% at Game Rankings with five reviews. Nintendo Power editors George and Bob shared roughly similar opinions of the game. George stated that it is a really fun game, owing its quality to its excellent play control and well thought out concept, while Bob stated that it is deceptively simple looking, when it in fact features a decent challenge for more experienced gamers. In an article detailing various Kirby series video games, IGN stated that it was a decent platformer, but also very basic compared to later titles. They also listed it as one of the games they wanted to be re-released for a hypothetical "DSi Virtual Console" service on the Nintendo DSi's DSiWare, describing it as a "replayable classic adventure". They also added that original characters like Kirby were the stars of the Game Boy rather than established characters such as Link, Mario, Samus Aran, and Pit. They would again praise Kirby's Dream Land for being an original game in their "History of the Game Boy" article, adding that while "attitude" was common in new platforming mascots, Kirby was cheery and adorable, while the game featured "breezy, casual gameplay and lighthearted atmosphere". 1UP.com praised it for its unique platforming mechanics, describing it as the start of a "gluttonous legend". Nintendojo described it as being an enriching experience, as well as being challenging. Nintendo Life, while it was a quality game when it was first release, it has since been outclassed by followup titles in the series. Kirby's Dream Land was also the best selling game in series history, selling over 5 million units worldwide.http://gamrreview.vgchartz.com/sales/3608/kirbys-dream-land/ Other than games in the Pokemon, Mario, and Tetris series, it was also the best selling game for the original Game Boy. Artwork KDL logo.png|Logo from box art of later release versions KDL Logo J.png|Japanese boxart logo (lit. Kirby of the Stars) External Links *Official Nintendo Japan site References Category:Games Category:1990s games